While going down the memory lane, we discovered this beautiful picture from the sets of Shyam Benegal’s Nishant. The picture boasts of the who’s who of India’s parallel cinema movement in the 70s and 80s – with Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Smita Patil, Mohan Agashe, Amrish Puri and Anant Nag sharing a single frame.
The picture is in some way reflective of the core group of individuals who brought a new dawn in Hindi movies. Naseeruddin and Shabana shared a superstar partnership, by appearing in a number of films together. Smita Patil became the face of the ‘female-centric’ NFDC movies, Mohan Agashe carved a niche for himself by playing diverse characters. Anant Nag took on significant responsibility for uplifting issue-based Hindi cinema in the 70s and the 80s.
Shyam Benegal kickstarted the whole parallel cinema movement in India with his debut feature film – Ankur. The film starred Anant Nag and Shabana Azmi in the lead roles. We owe a great debt to the group in the picture, and that’s why it deserves to be celebrated.
